The third of our PhysicsMeetup events, hosted by the Physics Department of Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, Philippines, is taking place on  Saturday 20 March at 1:00 AM Italian Time (8:00 AM Philippines Time).

This virtual event will be held via zoom and livestreamed on Facebook. For further information on how to access the event, kindly visit https://www.facebook.com/physicsmeetup

About the Talk:

Recent analyses have shown that the concluding stages of giant planet formation are accompanied by the development of large-scale meridional flow of gas inside the planetary Hill sphere. This circulation feeds a circumplanetary disk that viscously expels gaseous material back into the parent nebula, maintaining the system in a quasi-steady state. Here we investigate the formation of natural satellites of Jupiter and Saturn within the framework of this newly outlined picture. We begin by considering the long-term evolution of solid material, and demonstrate that the circumplanetary disk can act as a global dust trap, where s ~ 0.1-10 mm grains achieve a hydrodynamical equilibrium, facilitated by a balance between radial updraft and aerodynamic drag. This process leads to a gradual increase in the system's metallicity, and eventually culminates in the gravitational fragmentation of the outer regions of the solid sub-disk into R ~ 100 km satellitesimals. Subsequently, satellite conglomeration ensues via pairwise collisions, but is terminated when disk-driven orbital migration removes the growing objects from the satellitesimal feeding zone. The resulting satellite formation cycle can repeat multiple times, until it is brought to an end by photo-evaporation of the parent nebula. Numerical simulations of the envisioned formation scenario yield satisfactory agreement between our model and the known properties of the Jovian and Saturnian moons.
 

 

About the Speaker:

Forbes named Professor Konstantin Batygin the “next physics rock star” in its 2015 list of “30 Under 30: Young Scientists Who Are Changing the World.” Popular Science magazine also dubbed him as “The Man Whose Models Revealed A Possible Ninth Planet In Our Solar System” in the List of BRILLIANT 10 People on the Planet in 2016. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2008, before pursuing graduate studies at California Institute of Technology. To date, Batygin has authored over eighty scientific publications, and his research has been featured on the front cover of Scientific American. Prior to joining the faculty at California Institute of Technology in 2014, Batygin was a postdoctoral scholar at Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice, France, and Harvard University. When not doing science, he enjoys playing in his rock band, The Seventh Season.